My Life by Lionel Graves. (Page 37)
I was still applying all over the place for headships of larger schools sometimes losing count of the applications I had going out at any one time. I still didn't interview well, knotted stomach and jangled nerves. I finally got an interview in 1968 for Hallow C.E. School, Worcester to replace Lesley Boulton who was moving to Nunnery Wood Primary. The school was one where the managers made the appointment, not the Education Office, although they did have a representative at the interview. I had a good interview for once, the Managers were friendly and I was offered and accepted the post, starting in Sept 1968. This meant selling up at Southam which fell during a time when building societies were restricting loans and not taking fresh ones. I stayed at Tenbury during the week with Mum and Dad and going to school every morning and travelled back to Diane and the children in Southam on Fridays, returning to Worcester Monday mornings. That was an additional burden for Diana to bear but as usual she coped admirably. She also had the hassle of arranging the house sale and dealing with prospective buyers. One smart alec wouldn't agree to our lowest asking price and although he wanted the house, thought he could beat her down. Then along came a farmer wanting to buy it for his son who was getting married, he spat on his hand and shook hands with Diana without a quibble. A week or so later she had the satisfaction of telling the first rotter that – no, he couldn't have the house, it was sold.
The other snag was getting a mortgage for the new place in Worcester. The Abbey National refused me, so I went to the secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters and explained matters, he wrote them for me and the loan was granted straight away.
I can't remember exactly when we moved but it was great to be altogether again and cut out the wretched commuting.
Richard went to Henwick Grove Primary and Jane to Christopher Whiteheads Girls Secondary School before starting her career in nursing. Richard transferred to Chris Whiteheads Boys later, then the Tech, a year at Cardiff, then Leicester Poly and starting at Malvern Instruments in electronics.
They both married and we are lucky to have five grandchildren, Jonathan, Beth, Sara, Emily and Sophie all living in Worcester, whom we see quite frequently.
One highlight from Hallow, we used to hold an annual speech day, a habit I inherited from Les Boulton and which I decided to keep going. One year I reported to the managers, parents, guest of honour, children and staff that during the IRA letter and book bombing campaign, I got a parcel from an unknown source, posted to me at home and obviously containing a book. I said that I doubted if the IRA would have me on its hit list and would open it. “Not in the house you don't”, said Diana, “go out into the back garden”. So I did, it was an old school book being returned by a family who had left the district and had had a twinge of conscience.
I often think that it is a coincidence that one of the first exercises I had to do on starting at Kings was to run to Hallow Church and that was in 1937 and I am still going there now, even if not running.
I was at Hallow School from Sept 1968 to June 1986 a total of 18 years when I retired at 60.
This is a good point to finish this part of my story. My love to Diana without whom so much of this wouldn't have taken place.
Lionel Graves
Friday 30th March, 2001
2A East Comer, Worcester (1969).
Email: Lionel Graves (lionel@graf-tek.com).
Copyright ©2000-2008 L. Graves. All Rights Reserved.
